Israeli founder Eli enrolled at the University of Manchester in 1966, attracted by its strong reputation for Physics. He went on to receive an MA and a PhD in Solid State Sciences from Princeton University.

Describing what drove him to set up in business, he said: “I was a physicist.

“I was developing the physics behind flash memory and realised that the only way to commercialise it was to take it to market myself, as an entrepreneur.

“Taking strength and courage from people saying it couldn’t be done, I taught myself the business side of things. I learnt how important team-work is, the ability to delegate and not to micro manage."

In 1988, he launched the company that would become SanDisk with former Intel colleague Sanjay Mehrotra and former Hughes Electronics colleague Jack Yuan.

From early on, the visionary recognised that digital cameras would need digital storage, and computers could become ever more mobile and light, requiring similar storage technology.

And over a 25 year span the now retired chairman filled the role of inventor, entrepreneur, leader, CEO, and industry visionary.